Cercar en aquest blog

Compte enrere

24 d’oct. 2018

"Joaquim Forn and Pedro Chaparro"

This post includes a translation into English (by MS) of "Joaquim Forn i Pedro Chaparro", an article written by Jofre Llompart in February. It is even more shocking today, given recent events. I hope the author and the newspaper have no objection.Click here if need bePedro Chaparro was sentenced to 4 years in prison for the violent assault at Catalonia's Blanquerna Centre in Madrid. However, he was suspended by the court from entering prison.

He was again condemned to one year in prison by a Barcelona court for encouraging 300 Fascists to attack Catalan photoreporter Jordi Borràs in a 2015 speech. He has been banned from taking part in demonstrations called by his organisation in Catalonia, and has to pay a €2,000 fine. However, the sentence has been suspended for three years.

He is the vice-president of an ultranationalist party called Democracia Nacional.

"Joaquim Forn and Pedro Chaparro"

"I wrote the whole of this article without using the word justice because, quite frankly, I didn't find anywhere to put it"

by Jofre Llombart
February 2 2018

The Supreme Court has just decided to keep Joaquim Forn in prison. Pedro Chaparro, one of the convicts for the Blanquerna assault, has not yet entered it. The Interior minister is in pretrial detention while the vicepresident of Democracia Nacional (DN) has been sentenced in two verdicts: the Madrid hearing court in the first instance and the Supreme Court in the second.

Pedro Chaparro committed the offence for which he was sentenced (and not jailed) on September 11, 2013. The acts attributed to Forn occurred four months ago. Pedro Chaparro was tried three years after the crime he committed. He never entered into pretrial detention. Joaquim Forn has been in this regime for 92 days. Pedro Chaparro's verdict was initially eight months imprisonment (Provincial Court of Madrid). In 2017 the Supreme Court raised it to four years. When the sentence is over two years, whether or not one has a criminal record, one enters prison.

Shortly after the events, on October 12, 2013, Pedro Chaparro attended the demonstration that the ultra-right holds in Montjuïc (Barcelona) every Hispanidad Day. Moreover, he took part in the panel of speakers from which he delivered threats against pro-independence political leaders. He did the same (despite facing charges) in 2014 and 2015. In 2016 and 2017 he also went, but in these cases folowing the issue of the verdict. The threats to political leaders, in 2015 and 2016, were extended to other groups, such as the photojournalist Jordi Borràs. He invited the assistants to assault him after having qualified him as a "rat." In neither these speeches or in the Blanquerna case has the public prosecutor ever thought of charging him with a hate speech offence.

Just before entering prison, Pedro Chaparro appealed to the Constitutional Court to avoid entry. He argued that since 2015 he has had a stable job, that he has no criminal record and that he has a two and a half year-old child. The Court accepted this appeal and decided not to send him to prison so as not to cause "irreparable harm" to a person aged 30. In order not to make distinctions, the situation of Chaparro acted as a lever, so that none of the other convicted men had to enter prison either. On the other hand, Forn is in prison despite the fact that other leaders were released.

Joaquim Forn has no criminal record, he has two daughters and no longer has a stable job. He stopped being Interior minister on October 27 and last week he resigned his parliamentary seat. He did so precisely in order to show that there is no way he can repeat the offences he is accused of. He ceased having any responsibility over the Mossos d'Esquadra months ago and moreover, technically, he can no longer vote for a unilateral declaration of independence because he is not an MP. Pedro Chaparro has been released because he has a stable job. Joaquim Forn is still in prison despite giving up all of his jobs to show that he has distanced himself from everything. Forn's party (Together for Catalonia) won 948,233 votes on December 21. In the 2015 Spanish elections, Democracia Nacional obtained 1,685 votes in the whole of Spain.

Pedro Chaparro is still the vicepresident of Democracia Nacional. Joaquim Forn has dropped all political activity but judge Llarena is keeping him in prison, among other reasons, because "he shares the aspiration to achieve independence."

I made it: I wrote the whole of this article without using the word justice because, quite frankly, I didn't find anywhere to put it.